Shortlines, Where Customer-Service Is Key!

While shortline railroads are by far the smallest in the industry in both terms of miles of track (some are as short as one mile or less, such as the Little Kanawa Railroad located in Parkersburg, West Virginia) and money earned, they usually are the most interesting. For instance if you have an interest in older locomotives they abound on shortlines. Anything from little switchers like General Electric (GE) 44-tonners and American Locomotive Company (Alco) S-1s, built in the 1930s and 1940s, to General Motors’ EMD line of GP7s (GP models are commonly known as “Geeps” by railroaders and railfans) and SD9s (built later in the 1950s). All of these, plus many other types and from many other long-gone manufacturers, can still be found on these little railroads racking up the miles.

What shortlines lack in size they more than make up for in services they provide their customers, a trait which they are best known for. Shortlines literally live or die by the sometimes few precious carloads they are able to haul each year and cannot afford to give up a customer or two to make their bottom-line numbers look better (as is sometimes the case with their much large cousins, Class Is and large Regionals (although Regionals are also known for their very good customer service).

Some shortlines are even in operation because of only one customer they serve, and if that customer happens to leave for whatever reason then the railroad must either close down or enter a dormant state while waiting for a new customer(s) to appear (an example of this would be the Elk River Railroad in Gassaway, West Virginia which was originally created in 1989 to haul coal from a new mine that had recently opened but after it closed ten years later in 1999, the railroad has sat basically dormant since that time and today occasionally handles car-repair work).

This grittiness in the face of adversity is another reason shortlines have a uniqueness that is all their own and sometimes their very being keeps a rail line from abandonment, not to mention the help they provide their local economy (far too often rail lines are abandoned and left for dead when they could still be serving a purpose and helping the economy in which they are located).

For more information on a number of the shortlines which operate throughout the country please click on their appropriate link below:

Little Kanawha River Railroad

South Branch Valley Railroad

West Virginia Central Railroad

Morristown & Erie Railway

Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad

New Hope & Ivyland Railroad

Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railway

South Carolina Central Railroad

Georgia Southwestern Railroad

Chesapeake & Albemarle Railroad

Florida Central Railroad

Florida Midland Railroad

Florida Northern Railroad

St. Marys Railroad

Ann Arbor Railroad

Lake Superior & Ishpeming

Ohio Central System

RJ Corman Railroad Group

Indiana & Ohio Railway

Alton & Southern Railway

Iowa Northern Railway

Toledo, Peoria & Western

Sierra Railroad

Arizona and California Railroad

Fort Worth and Western Railroad

Apache Railway

Dallas, Garland & Northeastern

Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad

Idaho, Northern & Pacific Railroad

Utah Railway

Eastern Idaho Railroad

Yolo Shortline

Red River Valley & Western

For information on shortlines not covered above please click here for a directory of a Class III carrier in your area.

So, if you get the chance and know of a local shortline in your area be sure and see it in action if the opportunity presents itself (many only operate on certain days of the week). While watching a Class I container train moving at 60+ mph across the Heartland is always thrilling, nothing can likewise beat observing a local shortline switching its customer(s) and moving those cars between there, the interchange point (where Regionals and shortlines swap loaded and empty cars with the big Class Is), and back again. If you want to see the human side of railroading, no one does it better than the shortline.